Our History

A historical manor house for our family tradition

Between 1872 and 1874 our great-grandfather, Vincenzo Nicolini, and his brother Luigi bought the maquis of the Holy Trinity and part of the area named Querce d’Orlando (Orlando’s Oaks), mentioned on the Tabula Peutingeriana (III/IV century a.D.).

“Vincenzo and his brother Luigi then set about bonificating the land by planting avenues of cypress and pine trees. Although no design or map has survived, undoubtedly they planted the whole park (there is mention of 1 million pine trees) between 1894-5….The continuity in the placement of trees and avenues makes the park a single corpus”.*

In this same park in 1889 a magnificent marble sarcophagus of the Seasons or of the Ghirlande (120 a.D.) was found inside a mausoleum. On the lid it depicted scenes of the myth of Teseo and Arianna and the seasons. It is nowadays preserved at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

A nenfro bas-relief with gladiators in battle also came from this site and, after gracing the courtyard at Viterbo Civic Museum, was hidden away in the storerooms of the city’s Archeological Museum at Rocca Albornoz.

It wasn’t until 1892 that Vincenzo enlarged the manor house built on the remains of an ancient construction to form its current shape according to his own project.

Our Family scrupulously restored the villa redolent of past times to offer present-day comfort, as well as the 20 hectares park, enhancing its historical value and landscape significance in order to maintain and strengthen its fascination as an early XX Century romantic park, adding characteristics by buxus and viburnum bushes and laurel trees.

We have been sensitively imbibed with our great-grand father’s inspiration revealing our family identity through our property and we are now guardians of a tradition that we will pass on to our children.

* La Trinità, The Archeological and Historical Importance of the area Known as La Trinità and Querce d’Orlando, Dr. Mary Jane Cryan, 1998

1889 Drawing by our great-grandfather Vincenzo

Summer 1921

Summer 1921

Summer 1940

Summer 1940

Before renovation 2003

Nenfro bas-relief with gladiators

Before renovation 2003

Testimonials

The northern outskirts of Rome are far from the usual Reiserouten - still an almost undiscovered land, rich in cultural treasures, very varied plus exquisitely landscaped

A beautiful place, good, food, nice days by the pool, the surroundings are great and it’s so different from what we see every day in Sweden. Amazing lasagna, good wines, sorry fo singing, shouting and having music-quiz until 4:00 each night! We will be back! Not just to sing and drink but to meet you lovely people again!

The Real Estate Agents from Orebro through Robert Olsson

We have had a wonderful time at your beautiful place. The food has been excellent and the hospitality is amazing. It’s such a peaceful place which was just what we needed as a contrast to our normal, hectic life. Thank you so much for everything. Hope to see you again, maybe with our families next time.

Kajsa Hultman (Sweden)

What a privilege to stay in your beautiful house with such a lovely garden and how wonderful to have met you! Francoise and I look forward to seeing you very soon again. Thank you for your hospitality and generosity. We wish you all the best.

The perfect stay in the beautiful house built by Michaela’s grand-father surrounded by one of the loveliest gardens of Italy. Thank yo so much for your warm welcome and all the information on the area. We’ll be back as soon as possible.

Francoise Delassus (France)

You all did a great job by restoring this place. The house is beautiful, with a special sphere and loving interior. All was beyond our expectations. We spent many joyful moments under the umbrella trees in the garden. Many thanks for all the hospitality we felt. Babs Bak.

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